Syria Blamed For Guerrilla Attack

Israel Considers Response To Suicide Raid That Killed 6 Soldiers

November 27, 1987|By Jonathan Broder, Chicago Tribune.

KIRYAT SHMONA, ISRAEL — Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir on Thursday blamed Syria for sponsoring a daring airborne guerrilla attack on a northern Israeli army base that left six soldiers dead and seven wounded, and he called an emergency Cabinet meeting to discuss Israel`s response to the raid, the deadliest in more than two years.

The Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, headed by former Syrian army Capt. Ahmed Jabril, issued a communique in Syria claiming responsibility for the Wednesday night attack in which an Arab guerrilla in a motorized hang glider managed to penetrate Israel`s heavy northern border defenses, land near a military base and launch a surprise attack before he was shot to death.

``It is clear that those who have claimed responsibility could not do this without the sponsorship and help from Syria,`` Shamir told stunned residents of a northern kibbutz farm near Kiryat Shmona during a tour of the border area.

Another Palestinian guerrilla group, the Beirut-based Palestine Liberation Front, headed by Abu Abbas, also claimed credit for the attack.

Vowing to remove the guerrilla threat from Israel`s northern border zone, Shamir, whose right-wing Likud bloc launched the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, declared: ``The terrorists will not succeed in shaking the security of the Galilee.``

The death toll from the attack was the highest since March, 1985, when a suicide car bomb attack at the Lebanese-Israeli border killed 12 Israeli soldiers and wounded 14.

Israeli commentators, reflecting the nation`s stunned reaction to the successful guerrilla operation, called for more vigilance by both soldiers and citizenry. ``The exaggerated feeling of security which prevailed among us recently was out of place,`` said the independent daily Yediot Aharonot.

Meanwhile, the military high command said Israeli troops in Israel`s self-proclaimed ``security zone`` in southern Lebanon Thursday killed a second guerrilla whose hang glider fell short of Israel`s northern border.

Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who visited the attack site before dawn Thursday, said Israeli forces in southern Lebanon spotted the two gliders as they flew over the security zone and alerted army units in the area.

``Steps were taken, but they proved insufficient,`` Rabin told Israeli army radio. Earlier, military sources said air force helicopters were scrambled to intercept the hang gliders, but the guerrilla pilots managed to evade them. Rabin said the army would open an investigation into the infiltration.

According to an army officer who briefed reporters in Kiryat Shmoha, the two motorized hang gliders flew from south Lebanon toward Israel under the cover of darkness.

One glider landed in the security zone, where Israeli troops hunted down the pilot and killed him Thursday.

The second aircraft, a red-and-white glider with a 10-foot wingspan, set down in a field a few miles east of Kiryat Shmona.

The guerrilla pilot, carrying two automatic rifles and a satchel of hand grenades, ambushed a passing military truck, killing an officer at the wheel and wounding a soldier passenger.

The guerrilla then slipped into the nearby military base, hurled hand grenades and shot Israeli soldiers who ran from a well-lighted recreational tent to respond to the attack, the officer said.

Danny Torito, one of the wounded soldiers who was playing cards in the tent at the time, told army radio: ``We heard shooting and grenades exploding. We ran outside, and suddenly people outside began dropping.``

After a short gun battle, the guerrilla was slain, the briefing officer said.

Lt. Gen. Shomron said that despite Israel`s sophisticated border defenses, which include underground sensors, an electronic fence and constant foot patrols inside the 6-mile-wide security zone, ``we will never be able to seal off ourselves completely by sea, land and air.``

Abul Fida Omran, leader of the Popular Front forces in southern Lebanon, told a news conference in a Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon that the attack ``was carried out to confront the calls for an international conference`` to settle the Arab-Israeli conflict.